Veterans Day Quotes
Nothing on this page was written for Veterans Day. It is built from four pages, War, Courage, Patriotism and Gratitude, and the mix is not tidy. The war page contains plenty of writers who hated it, and the patriotism page contains Bertrand Russell remarking in 1962 that patriots talk of dying for their country and never of killing for it.
That makes the page more honest than a greeting card and less convenient. If you need a line of thanks, the gratitude entries are the safest place to look. If you want something that sounds like a speech, read the notes first, because some of the best-known patriotic lines here are flagged as misattributed.
Most quoted on veterans day:
God will see to it that war always recurs as a drastic medicine for the human race.
Nationalism does not provide a single way of talking about the world.
It is the technique of the baboon to try to get its way by violence.
Courage is doing what you're afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you're scared.
I wonder if this is what bravery is: adrenaline plus love plus absolute stupidity.
Patriotism always exists in the greatest degree in rude nations, and in an early period of society.
Men are ignorant that the purpose of the sword is to save every man from slavery.
Wars have never made peace or preserved it or fostered its ideals.
War is an invention of the human mind. The human mind can invent peace with justice.
A brave man is one who admits his fear. Only a fool believes himself invincible.